Enforced Life Enrichment!

Archive for June, 2010

I’d rather spend 3 days on a beef bourguignon, than 3 minutes on an omelette. Not because I dislike them (I LOVE them!); I’m just absolutely awful at making them. I get my mum to make them for me. When I watch Saturday Kitchen and they have the omelette race, I can’t help but think “surely that’s not edible; it’s all gooey and raw!”. But after extensive (youtube) research, it appears that the professional chefs are, in fact, correct in their methods.

Tonight, faced with a tub of mushrooms that had to be eaten, I decided to be brave and attempt a mushroom omelette. A cheesy one, for extra decadence (it may clog my arteries, but it’s bloody worth it). I done some last minute preparation (by watching this video) and felt ready to take the plunge.

It started off well. I had far too many mushrooms (250g), but I intended to use half and freeze half, once sautéed (I read that this would be ok; I guess I wont be finding out any time soon!). I have a serious obsession with mushrooms and couldn’t bear to remove any from the pan. So they ALL stayed.

I should have taken my “extra mushroom” situation into consideration, when I decided to plop only 2 beaten eggs into the pan. Maybe a 3rd egg would have made it look more like the fluffy omelette I had envisioned.

Things were looking surprisingly ok, until it was time to turn it over (should I have just folded it in half at this point?). I was silly and tried to use a plate as a stepping stone in turning it over in one piece.

When it went back into the pan, everything fell apart. There wasn’t enough egg to keep the mushies in their place. I added my cheese (about 30g grated mature cheddar) to one half and put the broken half of the mixture on top, in an attempt to bind it together and make it look “omelettey”. It worked better than I thought.

Granted, it doesn’t look like the most appetising dish in the world. But if, like me, you are a mushroom fiend… you’d have loved this! It was very tasty indeed. Finished off with a nice cup of tea, of course (milk & no sugar if we ever meet 😉 )

So what did I learn from this eggy escapade? I learned that if you melt cheese over something, it will always taste good! 🙂

I posted about this crappy omelette, as an appeal to basic cooks everywhere (as this is surely supposed to be a basic dish?). Can someone tell me how to make a proper omelette?

Thats me back from Marmaris, Turkey! I had a fabulous time, although unfortunately the food in our hotel left a lot to be desired 😦 (I’ll know to look at hotel reviews BEFORE I book next time!). I was intent on trying authentic Turkish food in some nice restaurants, however, I was struck down with a gut wrenching (literally) tummy bug for the last 3 days and just couldn’t face anything too adventurous! I did have a gorgeous mushroom sauce with a steak one night; I will endeavour to recreate it for the blog! Plus… I took a sneaky photo of a Turkish menu, with the descriptions in them. They will be investigated in the future!

So, what with the tummy bug and a week’s worth of alcoholic indulgences… a major detox was required! What better way to detox than with some lovely, veggie packed soup? Obviously I use the term “detox” loosely (soup aint the same without buttery bread!), but it’s a step in the right direction!

I got this recipe from the Good Housekeeping Cookery Book – The Cook’s Classic Companion. This was given to me as a birthday gift from my fellow food loving buddy (thanks Stevo) and my mouth waters with each turn of the page!

The original recipe calls for chillies and tomatoes, however, I decided to omit these, in an attempt to maintain the lovely flavours of the butternut squash and sweet potato. The soup really doesn’t miss either of these ingredients; I personally think it’s utterly moreish! I brought some into work for my friend Jayne’s lunch today and she enjoyed it too… Sweet Mother of Lucifer oh how I love the praise!

Such a simple combination!

Ingredients (serves 4-6 dependant on greed):

1 onion, diced

2tsp ground coriander

1 butternut squash, peeled, deseeded and diced

3-4 sweet potatoes, peeled and diced

1.7 litres vegetable stock (I used 3 veg stock cubes)

Directions:

Fry the onion in a little oil until soft. Add the coriander and stir.

Add the squash and potatoes and fry for 5 mins.

Pour in the stock and bring to the boil.

Simmer for 20 mins, or until the veg is soft.

Blend until smooth (I used my hand blender), then season to taste.

This soup could not be easier! Please give it a try and let me know what you think. Enjoy 🙂

Haven’t posted in a wee while, as my work are currently going through a redundancy process, of which I am one of the victims! But that is neither here nor there… as I am flying off to Marmaris, Turkey in a few hours!